Ok, how do I not blow greater than $400 on a decent system?

'cause it seems to me, that's what I've done so far.

summary of why I'm disappointed:

Just got my first car [used] about two weeks ago. Back speakers didn't sound; front ones sounded like crap [cardboard-ish bass]. Back speakers probably did work, they just weren't connected to the wires coming from the head unit - and I couldn't figure out how to connect them to the speakers by myself withsomething called quick-discconects. Bought new speakers for front and back. Front speakers endt up being the exact same ones that were already there, but went 20W higher - but in the end sound exactly the same. At least now I get some bass from the back ones, but they don't go low enough for me [in terms of freq. response]. Then bought a $100 head unit that had an aux input so I could connect my Rio Karma that has a dock with female RCA outs. So all together, I've spent about $400 for speakers, installation of speakers, head unit, head unit install, and parts. I bought all this stuff within a week of purchasing the car since I desperately needed music. But now I've done some reading and have been browsing different sites/forums like this one and think I have a better grasp on things.

I recently decided that I should get a sub to fill the low-end void but haven't yet.

But now, I think I want to completely re-upgrade.

What is currently in there is 2 front 4x6s, 2 back 6x9s, and a 50Wx4 head unit. It's adequate. But, being the somewhat-audiophile-ish person that I am, I need something that sounds better; not necessarily louder.

I listen to pretty much all music, but mainly [in descending order], rap,r&b,soul dusties,hip hop,jazz,classical, etc. I would like the system to go louder than how it is now, but I don't want to be heard down the block. I'd rather have a medium-loud decent sounding system than a loud OK system.

I know the next question has a million answers, but, according to my musical selections, need for quality with a full range of frequency response, and not super-loudness, what do you guys recommend? At minimum, I at least need a sub, or something that gives me better bass than the 6x9s.
This time around, I'm gonna try and install some stuff myself [although I know next to nothing about what I'm doing] and save some money, and gain some experience. I guess what I'm looking for is a 4-speaker solution, a sub, a sub amp, and maybe an amp for the speakers. I'm on a <$700 budget

Re: Ok, how do I not blow greater than $400 on a decent system?

Originally Posted by sumone

What is currently in there is 2 front 4x6s, 2 back 6x9s, and a 50Wx4 head unit. It's adequate. But, being the somewhat-audiophile-ish person that I am, I need something that sounds better; not necessarily louder.

Dunno what the configuration is here - 4X6's in the dash or doors?

The single biggest improvement you could make would be to have decent component speakers (5.25's or 6.5's) in your front doors. You'd get better midbass response as well as the clarity and volume you're looking for. Sound deaden the doors too, of course.

Add a sub later. As mentioned, you can run the front speakers off two channels of a 4-channel amp and use the other 2 for the sub.

Re: Ok, how do I not blow greater than $400 on a decent system?

Originally Posted by maylar

Dunno what the configuration is here - 4X6's in the dash or doors?

The single biggest improvement you could make would be to have decent component speakers (5.25's or 6.5's) in your front doors. You'd get better midbass response as well as the clarity and volume you're looking for. Sound deaden the doors too, of course.

sorry I wasn't specific: I have 2000 Malibu where 4x6s fit in the door, and 6x9s in the back. NOt sure what you mean about "Sound deaden the doors" - are you saying that I _should_ sound deaden the doors or sound deadens the doors - sorry, I'm a newbie.

Originally Posted by maylar

Add a sub later. As mentioned, you can run the front speakers off two channels of a 4-channel amp and use the other 2 for the sub.

So are you saying that all I should have is component speakers in the front doors, and then a sub in the trunk? Nothing in the rear? What about the backseat passengers? Sorry if I'm not understanding right.

I just picked up a book called "Auto Audio" (Yoder) from the lib. It's copywritten '95 - but has a lot of useful info that I seriously need to read up on. Hopefully after I read that, I can come back with more worthy questions...

Re: Ok, how do I not blow greater than $400 on a decent system?

for more info on sound dedining go to www.secondskinaudio.com
for components go to www.cdtaudio.com
and for subs it just depends on ur budget u have after u get everything else and if u want spl or sq or both.same with amps.

Is this right? Each tweeter has a channel, each midrange has a channel, and the sub has two so that it can be bridged [pos. of 1 channel, with neg. of 2nd channel].

the head unit I have is pretty garbage compared to you guys, but the only reason I bought it was caused I needed an auxiliary input without having to get an input adapter and only be able to use the CD player _or_ the input. The other ones that did have aux inputs were expensive as hell [$300+] and I don't really need all those extra features. It has a 50W peak and 20W RMS x 4 output. It has 1 pair of preamp outputs (3V) that would go to the amp. http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....oryId=cat03066

To set this up, is this how it would go:

- put the midranges in the front doors, and the tweeters somewhere in the front dash? I'm not sure I get this cause when I go to the vehicle fit guide thing on best buy's site, there's no component speaker things that fit. Don't they have to fit? Cause my Malibu doesn't have any dash speakers - only front door, and rear deck.

- put a sub in the trunk.

ahh this is frustrating that I don't get this stuff and haven't even set foot in my car and tried to install anything yet!

Re: Ok, how do I not blow greater than $400 on a decent system?

How would all the connections go from the amp to speakers, if I was getting the CDT61 component set with 1 sub? How many channels would the amp need to be?

Is it not 6 channels? since there's 2 midrange/bass and 2 tweeters from the component set and 2 to bridge the sub? I went to best buy today and didn't see any amps that had more than 4 channels.

The stuff on cdt's site [cdtaudio.com] is hard to comprehend/follow for someone like me, so sorry for the newbish questions. Will the CDT61 set fit in a 2000 malibu, cause the malibu takes 4x6s in the door and you guys are talkin 5.25 and 6.5?

Re: Ok, how do I not blow greater than $400 on a decent system?

you get a cross over with the componet set and the tweeters and midrange speakers feed off of that. Then you stil have 2 channels so you need a 4 channel (2 for sub and 2 for compnets). I think this is right but i am kinda new too

Re: Ok, how do I not blow greater than $400 on a decent system?

so the components only need two channels, and then the crossover splits each channel into 2 to equal 4 altogether? That makes sense.

Also, where do the tweeters go, if the 6.5/5.25s are in the door? They're supposed to be like ear level, right? but my car only has speaker spots in the front door and in the back behind the backseat.

Anyone know where I can get info on whether 6.5s or 5.25s will fit in the front door of a 2000 malibu [and perhaps other useful data I should know about my own car]? I don't have an owners manual so I resort to the web to find out stuff about it - but pretty much all I've managed to discover is that 4x6s go in the door and 6x9s in the back. This is my first car, so I know very little about cars, then in turn about car audio, so that's my excuse of me being a super-newbie.

Re: Ok, how do I not blow greater than $400 on a decent system?

Did some more research - I can only have 4" components in the front doors. I say this cause when I go to sounddomain.com and fill in 2k Chevy Malibu, the only thing that it says fit for is front door speakers - where all the component sets they list are 4". That then makes me want the "rear fill" [6.5s in the rear deck?], along with 1 sub. Would a 4channel amp still suffice?

Is it possible to bridge 1 sub over 2 channels, while those 2 channels still have speakers connected?

Like if I have 6.5s on rear left and rear right, can I still bridge a sub over those same two channels?